More Details Announced On Osteopathic College Project At Chaffee Crossing

The proposed Fort Chaffee-based Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine announced the formation of an atypical construction management partnership at a Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast on Friday (Sept. 5).

According to Kyle Parker, president and CEO of the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, Beshears Construction and Nabholz Construction in Fort Smith brought strengths to the table when applying for the construction manager position.

“But individually, they would not have won the bid,” he said, adding that Beshears had expertise in construction of educational facilities while Nabholz is ranked 22nd in the United States for healthcare facility construction.

“They’ve done over $1.5 billion alone in the last five years in healthcare building,” Parker said of Nabholz.

Nabholz will manage all of the pre-construction work, pricing and implementation of energy efficiency standards before construction, Parker said.

In the area of energy efficiency, Parker said the new osteopathic school — which will be housed in a three story, 100,000-square-foot building valued at more than $31 million in Chaffee Crossing — would include many energy efficiency features unique to the medical school. Parker is familiar with energy efficiencies, having worked with officials at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith to save more than $1.4 million per year in energy savings through his work as the university’s former vice chancellor of operations.

MORE MONEY SUPPORT
In addition to announcing the construction management partnership on Friday, Parker also announced funding from the federal Economy Development Agency in the amount of $1.2 million which he said would be used to expand Chad Colley Boulevard in front of the medical school, as well as construct a new road into the school’s site.

Parker also broke news of a $200,000 gift to the school from the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, bringing total donations and other funding committed in some form to the proposed school up to $106.9 million, according to figures included in Parker’s presentation on Friday.

The largest amount of funding — $60 million — came from the Degen Foundation, while an additional $14 million came from an anonymous donor. The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority donated the land valued at $5 million while the city of Fort Smith has committed to infrastructure and other improvements in and around the site of the school at a cost of $1.5 million.

Additionally, Parker said a “local financial institution” has offered to loan the school $25 million at an interest rate below the market rate.

“That puts us at $107 million (of access to working capital),” Parker said, adding that while the school did not require a loan for operations, it would “be crazy” to not take the offer of credit at such a low rate.

All of the donations, community support and the offer of below-market lending, he said, is overwhelming.

“I mean it straight up — I’ve been overwhelmed with the generosity of the community involvement,” Parker said.

And it is more than just monetary contributions from the community, but also time the community is putting in. Parker announced the addition of four local doctors to the ACHE Board of Trustees including Drs. Cole Goodman, Chris Greer, Esther Tompkins and Jim Zini. The four join Chair John Taylor, Vice Chair David Craig, Secretary/Treasurer Ronnie Hawkins, Jeff Beauchamp, Dr. Judy Boreham, Dr. Benny Gooden, Jim Patridge, Karen Pharis and Mike Rappeport on the Board.

ACCREDITATION TIMETABLE
While plans are advancing to get the school from concept to reality at Chaffee Crossing, plans are also advancing to get the school from concept to reality academically, as well.

Parker said reserves have been established in compliance with the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA), and that applications had been put in for accreditation with the commission for accreditation. He said ACHE expects to hear back from COCA in the next 15-30 days regarding an on-site visit, with an expected Dec. 2 pre-accreditation hearing to follow.

“At that point, at pre-accreditation, we have to have under contract our associate deans and there are three associate deans that have to be under contract. Of which, we have all three of them. We’re going to announce that closer to the end of December because they’re under contract right now and they’re not here in Arkansas. We’re bringing them all in (from around the nation),” he said.

The school also established more than 200 slots for residencies for its students. Parker said recruiting of students for the first 150-student class scheduled to begin in fall 2016 could begin once the school receives provisional accreditation, which is expected as soon as April 2015.

Arkansas State University in Jonesboro is also moving towards establishing an osteopathy medical school that would help the Delta fulfill the need for more primary care physicians in underserved areas.

Read more and watch an animated rendering of the Fort Chaffee project at this link from The City Wire.